When mice swallow hyaluronan, almost none of it gets into their bloodstream whole—just a tiny bit—so any effects they feel probably come from gut bacteria breaking it down, not from the original...

When mice swallow hyaluronan, only about 1 in 500 parts of it actually gets into their body without breaking apart—so most of it just passes through without being absorbed.

When mice eat hyaluronan, it’s probably not the whole molecule that helps their skin and joints—it’s the smaller pieces it breaks down into that do the work.

When your body doesn’t absorb certain pieces of hyaluronan (a substance found in joints and skin), your gut bacteria break them down into tiny fatty acids—and in mice, these fatty acids are the only things your body gets from those bacteria.

When you swallow hyaluronic acid, only about 2% of it actually gets into your bloodstream, no matter how big or small the molecules are, because your gut breaks it down too much and doesn’t let much through.

When rats ate hyaluronic acid, only 16% of it made it into their bloodstream unchanged — the rest got broken down or didn’t get absorbed at all.